


the night we met

by curiositas



Category: Newsies - All Media Types, Newsies!: the Musical - Fierstein/Menken
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Angst, Bad Ending, Canon Era, Gen, Mentioned Crutchie, Mentioned David Jacobs, Mentioned Delancey brothers, Mentioned Joseph Pulitzer, Mentioned Katherine Plumber Pulitzer, Mentioned Les Jacobs, Mentioned Warden Snyder, jack is leaving for santa fe and he's sad, song: the night we met (lord huron)
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-09-21
Updated: 2020-09-21
Packaged: 2021-03-08 01:08:11
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 985
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26577316
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/curiositas/pseuds/curiositas
Summary: Jack Kelly is on a train to Santa Fe, but things didn't exactly go the way he'd planned.(This is basically what would've happened if Katherine failed to convince Jack to push through with the Children's Crusade.)
Kudos: 3





	the night we met

Jack was thinking about everything and nothing all at once.

At this time  of night, he would be back at his rooftop, sketching by the light of the moon, or babbling to Crutchie about his dreams of Santa Fe . But tonight was different, because those dreams had finally come true.

_Sort of._

He stared  vacantly  out the window, watching the dim landscapes pass him by. He had a first-class compartment all to himself. With that kind of luxury, he could do whatever he wanted. But all he could do was stare.

Sure, he was on a train to New Mexico, but he had left New York in the messiest way possible. He remembered confronting Pulitzer in his office  just  yesterday, a place he’d never thought he’d wind up in.  He remembered how confident he was, talking to his boss like he was any other newsie, almost taunting him with the idea of the rally  .  And he remembered how  quickly  that cockiness melted away when he learned the truth about Katherine Plumber .

His skin got cold seeing Snyder come into view, his heart racing as he ran to the door. With the Delanceys holding him back, Pulitzer had the upper hand _once again._ Jack scoffed at his offer to call off the strike for enough money to leave for Santa Fe. But at the mention of his brothers - Crutchie, Davey, and Les - he felt his courage falter.  If he didn’t shut down the rally, he swore that he would have _every single newsie_ that would show up to Medda’s theater thrown into the Refuge .

Thinking about it now, he had  technically  done the right thing, but it didn’t _feel_ right. Not after the angry shouts and boos still rang in his ears, calling him a sell-out, a scab, a traitor. He felt sick to his stomach, remembering the utter pain and hurt in Davey’s eyes when Jack confronted him. All the world was a blur as he fled from Newsie Square. It was a miracle that he didn’t black out before making it to his fire escape, but things didn’t get any better when he did.

Katherine _Pulitzer_ was waiting for him at the top of the ladder, looking through _his_ drawings.  She managed to calm him down before presenting him an idea she called The Children’s Crusade: a city-wide strike, not  just  for the newsies  . No, this was far too big to be _ just _ them. If they could get all the working kids of the city on their side, things could  really  start to change. For good.

With Jack happening to know a printing press that wasn’t under Pulitzer’s control, they were almost ready to go. But she reminded him that they needed the newsies to spread the word, to carry the banner to every part of the city.  His spirits wilted at the mention of his brothers, his brothers who they would have to get back on their side by some sort of miracle  . His brothers who, he argued, would  probably  be better off not seeing him again.

He didn’t think he could do it. And so, pushing her away, he grabbed what few belongings he had and ran away. _Again._

Jack felt something sting his chest. His head was still fuzzy, but he  was reminded  of what Medda had told him. And in the silence, those words had never echoed louder.

“When you go somewhere and it turns out not to be the right place, you can always find someplace else,” she said. “But if you’re running away, nowhere’s ever gonna be the right place.”

_The right place,_ he thought as he leaned back in his leather seat. If you grew up like him, you spent a good deal of your life running away. People like the newsies, like him, had dreams about finding the “right place”, wherever that may be. Now, he had finally gotten his wish, but definitely not in the way he'd expected.

He had never expected the journey to be so lonely, either. He had given Crutchie hope that his gimp leg would get better when they headed west. The air was cleaner there, much cleaner than the grimy stuff of New York.

But the seat beside him was only filled with silence. The cops had arrested Crutchie on the second day of the strike. And instead of getting closer and closer to their dream by the minute, he was stuck in the hellhole that was the Refuge.

His heart broke whenever he passed a city or a town. Their lights in the distance reminded him too much of his view back at his "penthouse".  Maybe  Katherine was right.  Maybe  he should have stayed.  Maybe  he was a coward for running away. Yes, that’s what he was: _a_ _coward._ He was a coward for not seeing the strike through. He was a coward for leaving his brothers, his family, to figure things out for themselves. Davey was smart, but Jack was their leader. Nobody knew the streets of Manhattan like he did. Nobody knew _the newsies_ like he did. Nobody could bring them all together like he did.

The world around him seemed to fade away as he thought of how different things could have been. If he could, he would swat the train ticket out of his hand, race through the streets to Katherine, and apologize.  They would carry out the Children’s Crusade, get back the newsies' trust, and  maybe  Joe would put the price back where it belonged . Only then would he and Crutchie leave.

But reality told a different story.

Here he was, on a train to Santa Fe like he had always dreamed. But he was alone. But his family hated him. But he had turned away the only person that didn’t give up on him. But the newsies were still suffering. But Crutchie was stuck in the Refuge.

_But he had torn everything apart._


End file.
